Walk with the Dead

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Everybody comes to Rick's... panel at NYCC.

By Scott Collura

NYCC: AMC's panel for its upcoming horror series The Walking Dead was the place to be this weekend at New York Comic Con. Moderated by our own Eric Moro and held in the IGN Theater, the show's producers and stars were all on hand to talk about zombies, comics, red shirts... and more zombies!

We already ran our rather excited impressions of the exclusive footage they ran at the show, which you can read right here. But there was also an extended Q&A during the panel as well. Here are some highlights…

As the Q&A kicked off with the producers, it was noted that the hope is that the show will go on for a long, long time -- just like the comic. "We're going for The Simpsons record," laughed Hurd, referring to the 20-plus seasons of that show.

Darabont said he's been a zombie fan ever since he first saw George Romero's Night of the Living Dead as a kid. Hurd, meanwhile, was surprised that AMC seemed to be fans of the Kirkman comic too -- they'd actually heard of it before she pitched them on it.

Click on the sad-sack zombie to read our impressions of the exclusive Walking Dead footage that ran at NY Comic Con.

Regarding how close the show will track with the comic, Darabont responded, "We're going in every spastic direction we can and we're taking as many detours as we can. If good ideas come up, let's not ignore them. We step off the path, we can always step back on it. There are going to be a lot of surprises even for the most devoted fans of the comic."

Kirkman pointed out that the clips screened for the panel were a good indication of how the series will be faithful to the comic but also fresh. Indeed, the footage was very familiar to anyone who's read the early issues of Walking Dead, and yet things were different at the same time. Kirkman actually wrote the fourth episode of the show, a task which he loved because he got to write for characters who have been dead in the comic for a while now.

Regarding the look of the undead themselves, Hurd said that they very much wanted them to track with the Night of the Living Dead and Dawn of the Dead style of zombie. It was very important to get the design right and the producers even chose their camera system so as to best showcase the creatures and makeup effects (Super 16 film). People in the audience actually clapped at the Super 16 mention, which amused Kirkman -- he admitted that when he was told about the system he was like, "What's that?"

"They're not a gimmick," Hurd said of the ghouls. "They're real. We have lunch with them. And we are lunch."

Frank Darabont

Kirkman's favorite zombie movie is Day of the Dead because it's "the nastiest." Hurd prefers Night of…, as does Darabont, though he agreed that Day of… is great and underrated and that he loves "the pressure cooker kind of thing" of the film. Shaun of the Dead, Dead-Alive and the 28 Days Later pictures all got shout-outs too (even though Darabont said he knows the latter's creatures aren't technically zombies… yadda, yadda, yadda).

When asked if zombies are the new vampires of pop culture, Hurd said, "Zombies are better than vampires." Darabont said, "I hope not, because I used to love vampires and now I'm worn down by them." Sparkly vampires in particular seem to grate on him.

As for the storylines from the books that the producers are most looking forward to, Darabont said that he can't wait to get to Michonne. "Striding out of the wasteland with a samurai sword and two zombies chained to her," he laughed. "It's like a 1970s Pam Grier."

The cast joined the producers on stage for the second part of the Q&A. Lincoln, who stars as the heroic Rick Grimes, said that when he got the job he read the comic up to a point and then stopped because he found that it would be more useful for him to discover the story as it goes, particularly since "you're seeing the world through Rick's eyes."

Kirkman's favorite character is Rick, though there are a lot of characters he's killed off that he now misses. "I hope we get to see Axel," he said. "I honestly miss the Governor. I love that this show exists so we can get back to that."

Andrew Lincoln as Rick Grimes

Sarah Wayne Callies plays Rick's wife Lori. The actress said she worries how viewers will feel about her in the early episodes of the show, and felt obliged to point out that Lori's really not as bad as she comes across in the beginning.

Speaking of which, the question came up of how far the show can push the boundaries of television standards. "Farther than you think," responded Darabont.

"There is no holding back," added Hurd. There were times when they shot things that they thought would wind up on the DVD, and then Standards and Practices would e-mail them and say, "It looks great!" There's nothing different here than if Darabont was shooting an R-rated feature.

Norman Reedus' presence was interesting because he plays a character named Daryl Dixon who isn't even in the book. "I'm not in the comic," he said, leading Darabont to tell him that apparently he might be now.

"That would be dope, though I'd probably just look ahead to see how I die," Reedus laughed. His brother on the show is played by Michael Rooker, though Rooker's not a regular in the series.

As for regulars versus guest stars, a fan asked if some of these characters might not be Red Shirts -- written into the story just to die. Darabont said they're "red shirts who become major characters."

Finally, the question of whether or not a Season 2 will happen of course came up. The answer was obvious: "Tune in and write to AMC. Tell your friends to watch." Get on that stat.